support: PBII

Nov 19, 2011 - De Boerderij, Zoetermeer (NL)

Both the British neo-prog rockers of Arena
and the Dutch prog band PBII
had the same reason to enter the
stage at 'De Boerderij', because both bands were promoting a new record.
Arena was on tour to spotlight the new CD The
Seventh Degree Of Separation, while PBII launched their new DVD
PBII@BOERDERIJ.ORG.

PBII

Only a couple of weeks earlier I had the pleasure to
witness a live performance of PBII at De Pul in Uden (see review). Therefore I
guessed they would perform the same show while supporting Arena and they
actually did.

Ruud Slakhorst

This time PBII had too little time to play the complete DVD and
thus Cradle To Cradle and
Fata Morgana were left out. They could
have played them anyway since the guest musicians on these tracks were available.
However, it seemed that bassist John Jowitt
and guitarist John Mitchell were
not allowed to guest during the PBII live show. They had to stay fresh for the
Arena gig after the break. Nevertheless, PBII succeeded in giving a decent
concert without them. Once again I could enjoy splendid versions of
Plastic Soup,
Changing The Habits and Loneliness
as well as the wonderful voice of the band's new lead singer
Ruud Slakhorst. He sounded even better than
in October at venue De Pul. Especially the way he sang
Book Of Changes
had improved a lot. The sound at De Boerderij was also
way better than at De Pul. PBII also played Never Old
again, a tune from their new project 1000Wishes.
It's a beautiful piece of music; a true progressive
rock tune that ended a perfect concert!

Arena

According to Paul Manzi,
the band's new lead
singer, it has been six and a half years since Arena did a complete tour. Only
occasionally they showed up to do a live performance like the Rock Ittervoort
concert in April 2008 and the show they did at De Boerderij in November 2010. This

Paul Manzi

time they came to treat their fans to some old music and songs from the new
album. The band had chosen to perform only a few tracks of the new concept
album instead of playing the entire CD.

The Great Escape,
the opening piece of the new album, opened this gig
as well. It started with Paul Manzi's voice only; he looked like
Ronny James Dio and sounded as a mixture
of Bruce Dickenson
(Iron Maiden) and
Damian Wilson (Threshold).
Soon the other band members followed. The
Great Escape
is a difficult song to play live, but they managed very well
without making hardly any mistakes just as on the rest of the new material.
Songs as What If ?,
One Last AuRevoir,
Burning Down,
Rapture and The Ghost Walks
sounded rather strong. Sure, most people weren't
familiar with the new album, because it was put on the market during this tour.
To my surprise some people already sang along with the new stuff. They must
have seen the band in The Netherlands at the start of the tour when they
visited De Pul early November or they got an illegal download.

Unfortunately the visuals were limited to the use of cardboard
figures taken from the new album. No backstage projections or slide shows at
all, although the light show was done well especially during
The Ghost Walks.
During this fine piece John
Jowitt played on his bass pedals with his arms spread as if he were crucified.

Arena on stage with cardboard figures

The special use of the lights made it a magnificent view to watch! As I
mentioned before, the audience could also enjoy the older material. To my
surprise they played Valley Of The Kings
from the band's debut album Songs From The Lions Cage
(1995) preceded by a special introduction by keyboard player
Clive Nolan about how he and drummer
Mick Pointer met in a bar to form Arena.
According to Mr. Jowitt it was a gay bar which was insistently denied by Mr.
Nolan.

It seemed the band liked The Visitor
(1998) and Contagion
(2003) the best, since most of the performed tracks were taken from these
albums. From the first one they did A
Crack In The Ice, (Don't Forget To) Breathe,
Serenity and
The Visitor and from the second one the title track,
The City Of Lanterns,
Riding The Tides and
Ascension. However, not only the
musicians liked to play these songs as the audience went mad when they heard
the intros. Being the singer Paul Manzi mostly stood in the spotlights of
course; he's a great host who had no problem at all to keep the audience awake
as he showed during the first encore Crying
For Help VII.
He not only introduced his fellow band members, but he also
asked the audience to participate. Guitarist John Mitchell got a lot of
attention as well. As always his outstanding guitar solos were a real treat to
the ears especially in tracks like Serenity,
the final encore Ascension,
A Crack In The Ice,
The Visitor and
(Don't Forget To) Breathe. He even played some fragments from
Still Got The Blues
(Gary Moore) and
Sorrow (Pink Floyd)
during the encore section.
Maybe this time Clive Nolan had a more supportive role; he only got his usual
solo spot while performing the keyboard solo in
Riding The Tides, but he certainly had a great share in the overall
sound of Arena. Being the rhythm section, Pointer and Jowitt did their jobs
properly keeping the songs together as if they'd been playing together for ages.
This is of course not the case since Jowitt rejoined the band recently.

In conclusion I can only say that both bands gave
strong performances making sure to sell enough CDs and DVDs to return home contented.
I don't know to what extent John Mitchell was serious when he told the audience
that no-one was allowed to leave the venue without buying a copy of
The Seventh Degree Of Separation...

Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)

Setlist Arena:

The Great Escape
A Crack In The Ice
(Don't Forget To) Breathe
The City Of Lanterns
Riding The Tide
What If ?
One Last Au Revoir
Burning Down
Serenity
Valley Of The Kings
Crying For Help IV
The Eyes Of Lara Moon
Ghost In The Firewall
Rapture
The Ghost Walks
Bedlam Fayre
The Tinder Box
The VisitorEncores:
Crying For Help VII
Ascension